PROBLEM:
Delta chose to only have 5 gate agents working on one of the busiest flight days of the year -- the Sunday before Christmas vacation week. Because of this, myself and hundreds of others were punished and missed our flights even when arriving with plenty of time. They failed to have enough staff on hand and the customers got screwed over.

STORY:
Arrived at RDU airport 2 hours before 7:05 AM flight and stood in line to perform self-check-in, which took 20+ minutes. Unfortunately, I had to check-in one bag, thus I had to wait in the ridiculous line with lots of frustrated customers. The line must have included 800+ customers and snaked all around the entire second floor of Terminal 2. There was no Delta rep to provide any information, indicate what line to be in, or even to enforce line integrity.

I joined the long line and was standing next to an injured Army veteran with his wife and kids. The wife and kids were all crying because Delta made no effort to get them any flights. The Army vet said "Delta ruined my daughter's birthday and our family reunion." The Delta agent turned them away and offered nothing. Delta should be ashamed for this sort of treatment towards members of America's Armed Forces.

So I dutifully stood in line and watched the chances of making my flight fade away. I waited 90 minutes (1.5 hours) and they began announcing that most of us wouldn't even make our flights. This was no consolation. Since no Delta employees were communicating with all of us in line, a TSA officer was handing out Delta branded cards that had a phone number and a Twitter handle @DeltaAssist. We were told to contact Delta via these means if we needed any customer service. I called the number and it took 20 minutes for someone to answer. I was still standing in line while on the phone. Phone agent said "No flights until tomorrow" but indicated that I should stay in line and hope I make my flight. 10 minutes later I made it to the ticketing agent and they flatly told me I missed my flight and there was nothing they could do for me.

I sent several Tweets to @DeltaAssist and got no response. Then I checked that page and saw that it had been abandoned and they weren't responding to any customers. They could at least update these cards with the correct info. So, I began sending Tweets to @Delta and they also went completely ignored. @Delta did respond to hundreds of other people, but they never responded to me -- even after 13 hours.

No person either online, in-person or on the phone was any help or offered any sort of compensation. The one person who claimed to be a manager smugly said "Well then you should have been here 3 hours in advance instead of 2." I said this was not helpful and he curtly told me that he could refund my ticket, but this did nothing to help me.

I heard many customers walking away in disgust saying they would never do business with Delta ever again. Count me in that group, too. After having a Delta Gold American Express card for 6+ years, I'm cancelling the credit card and selecting a new primary airline.

While I was standing by the counter, the Delta concierge threatened a peaceful and calm customer by saying he would call the police on him if he didn't move along. All that guy did was ask a question about what they could do to help get his family rebooked. They did not deserve to be threatened with police action.

When I got home from the airport 20 minutes later, I called the Customer Service phone number and waited again for them to pick up. Finally it said they were experiencing a high call volume (wonder why?) and they could call me back via their automated system. I waited an hour for them to call me back. When the Delta rep got on the phone, they said there were no flights available until Tuesday -- a full day after what had been promised only minutes before.

So, now not only did I miss my flight because Delta didn't have enough employees to handle the holiday rush, but then they put me in a position of missing two more work days, paying two more days for hotels and meals, additional costs for transportation, not to mention loss of time and the associated stress of the whole debacle. No one at Delta has offered me a voucher or any form of compensation for these losses. It is clear that Delta simply does not care about paying customers. They enjoy taking our money and then forget who is the customer as soon as they deposit the cash. Despicable.

I don't expect anything to change and the airlines are never held accountable. I merely wrote this for reference and as a cautionary tale to others. I'm done booking flights with Delta and never will again. You should consider boycotting Delta, as well. Especially if you've had an experience like this.